340 History of the English Landed Interest. 



during tlie violent whirligigs of a civil turmoil." Never lias 

 Young been so calumniated ; even Rogers gauged this side of 

 his character better when he termed him " no lackey." If he 

 had what phrenologists call "the bump of veneration," which 

 is doubtful, it was there because of his exalted estimation of 

 the British farmer. The natural influences of the industry he 

 had so much at heart shed a halo round the heads of those 

 employed in it, and he regarded landlord, tenant, and labourer 

 in one light only ; namely, in their relationship to the soil. 

 "No apology is wanting," says he in his Preface to the B'lx 

 Months^ Tou)\ " for joining peers and common farmers in the 

 same page. He who is the best farmer is with me the greatest 

 man." If, therefore, he considered that his appointment to 

 the Board had placed him under the shade of any aristocracy 

 at all, it would be under that of an aristocracy of the plough. 



We cannot pass over without comment one other sentence 

 in Donaldson's short account of Young. This writer infers 

 that " the rampant feelings which lead him into political and 

 party themes were carried into his work for the Board of 

 Agriculture, and not only eventually severed the claims of its 

 vitality, but effected its dissolution." The best means of 

 answering such a misstatement as this is to continue our 

 narrative of Young's life and let facts speak for themselves. 



The man who had his energy and talents might have been 

 expected to succeed in any enterprise however arduous that he 

 decided to take up. The only cause for surprise was his con- 

 stant want of success. He received so little encouragement 

 throughout the greater portion of his life that a less high-prin- 

 cipled and enthusiastic temperament must have given in with 

 disgust. To use his own graphic expression, he worked like a 

 coal-heaver, though without his reward. His mind was always 

 away at the farm, even when his body was doing unpalatable 

 drudgery in the smoky Metropolis. Nothing can be conceived 

 more incongruous than a parliamentary reporter who was also 

 a farmer. Nevertheless, for several years Young, in this double 

 role^ was walking seventeen miles out to his farm in the 

 country on a Saturday night, and the same distance back on 

 the ensuing Monday, in order that ho might combine a faith- 



